St Kilda’s trams, tourists and traders may blow with the bay breeze, but Cafe Di Stasio remains a constant.

For nearly three decades, this den of tight tables, Italian classics and white-jacketed waiters has lured a loyal following who lob for long lunches as much as Sunday supper with the kids.

Arrive early and sidle up to the adjoining bar with its high marble counter for some of Melbourne’s top snacks (the after-school sandwich is bang-the-table good), then decamp to the dining room for an authentic taste of old-school Italian.

This is the best way to experience the full force of Ronnie Di Stasio’s dining institution.

Open with beef carpaccio braced with lemon or the golden-crusted eggplant parmigiana sandwiching tomato sugo, mozzarella and parmesan, before trading up to pasta that’s a tad firmer than al dente.

Calamari pieces and wilted radicchio jostle with chewy diamonds of maltagliati pasta made from bread, while prosciutto and sage give depth to pan-fried fillets of veal, gloriously glistening in butter along with bronzed pucks of semolina gnocchi.

Service can feel a little like you need to be a regular to get top treatment, but waiters are obliging, reciting the long list of daily specials with ease and readily topping up drinks, perhaps a perky pinot noir from Ronnie Di Stasio’s own Yarra Valley vineyard.

The room is a simple palette of mottled walls and white linens, but radiates with the buzz of good food and good times.

Must eat dish: Eggplant parmigiana
Instagram: @bardistasio